International Equine Disease Report Fourth Quarter 2007

The International Collating Centre, Newmarket, England, and other sources reported the following disease outbreaks:

A clinically severe outbreak of atypical myoglobinuria/myopathy (AM) was diagnosed among eight non-Thoroughbred horses on three premises in Switzerland. AM is a frequently fatal disease of grazing horses. Its etiology is unknown. It is recognized in several European countries, including the United Kingdom, where it was first reported in 1942. The disease has a sporadic incidence and has been associated with adverse weather conditions. Diagnosis is based on clinical, biochemical, and pathological findings, including histopathology of muscle tissue.

Sporadic cases of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) abortion were reported from Argentina, Germany, France, Ireland, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Multiple cases were reported from South Africa on four premises involving Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods. Respiratory disease attributable to EHV-4 was reported among foals on a premise in Argentina and among racehorses on a premise in Japan. Respiratory disease attributable to EHV-1 was found on multiple premises in France among various breeds of horses. A single case of EHV-1 infection was diagnosed at Churchill Downs Racetrack, Kentucky, attributable to the non-paralytic strain of the virus.

In France cases of equine infectious anemia (EIA) were identified among eight horses on three premises in proximity to premises where EIA had been confirmed earlier in the year.

For 2007 the USDA confirmed 197 equine cases of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE ) throughout the United States, with the largest numbers recorded in Louisiana (42), Indiana (33), Mississippi (30), and Texas (30). Over the same period, 452 equine cases of West Nile virus infection (WNV) were reported, concentrated in Texas (90), Montana (36), Colorado (29), and California (28).

Cases of equine influenza were reported from Australia, France, Ireland, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Grass sickness was diagnosed among two horses in Switzerland. Piroplasmosis was confirmed from South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Two abortions attributable to Leptospira infection were diagnosed in the United Kingdom.

An extensive outbreak of rotavirus infection among foals was confirmed on four premises in Argentina. Fatalities occurred as a result of multiresistant antibiotic E. coli septicaemia. An outbreak of salmonellosis was diagnosed on one premise and in a veterinary hospital in the United Arab Emirates. Strangles was reported from Ireland (19 premises), South Africa (five premises), Sweden (multiple premises), Switzerland (four premises), and the United Arab Emirates among two quarantined horses recently imported from Argentina and Uruguay.

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